Page 62 - GAO-02-327 Electronic Government: Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language

Chapter 4: Conclusions and Recommendations
Chapter 4: Conclusions and
Recommendations
Conclusions
XML has the potential to help the federal government significantly
streamline the process of identifying, integrating, and processing
information from widely dispersed systems and organizations. Many
critical government functions depend on effective information sharing
across organizational boundaries, yet the problem of overcoming
obstacles to effective data sharing has never been satisfactorily resolved.
Today, broad information sharing needs are at the forefront of national
priorities. For example, identifying and countering a bioterrorist attack
requires that important medical information be collected and integrated as
rapidly and thoroughly as possible. Likewise, law enforcement information
about known terrorists and their activities must also be integrated and
shared at Internet speed. XML-based systems can play a valuable part in
facilitating this kind of broad information exchange.
XML’s greatest benefits accrue when organizations, such as government
agencies, use standard data exchange procedures and agree on standard
data definitions and structures. Effectively using XML as a means to share
data among disparate systems across the federal government will require
agencies to conform to a range of technical and business standards. While
XML’s technical standards are largely in place, important business
standards—including many planned standard vocabularies—have not yet
been completed, and in some cases, standards development to date has
resulted in incompatibilities. To the extent that these business standards
address government needs as they are developed, government agencies
will likely have less of a need to develop their own nonstandard data
vocabularies and structures.
Given that a complete set of XML-related standards is not yet available,
system developers must be wary of several pitfalls associated with
implementing XML that could limit its potential to facilitate broad
information exchange or adversely affect interoperability, including (1) the
risk that redundant data definitions, vocabularies, and structures will
proliferate, (2) the potential for proprietary extensions to be built that
would defeat XML’s goal of broad interoperability, and (3) the need to
maintain adequate security.
While education and outreach are important activities that are already
under way in the federal government, an explicit strategy for adopting
XML across the government has not yet been defined. Such a strategy is an
important foundation for promoting standardization across agencies and
facilitating broad information exchange while at the same time reserving
the flexibility for agencies to tailor their use of XML to best meet their
needs. Without a well-defined strategy, the government runs the risk that
Page 58 GAO-02-327 Electronic Government